Catherine in The End of Men: Character Analysis of the Anthropologist Who Documented the Plague

Overview of Catherine Lawrence (née Catherine) in The End of Men

(2021)

Christina Sweeney-Baird’s novel The End of Men follows multiple narrators as a lethal, gender-specific virus—the Plague—sweeps the world, killing nearly all men. Among these narrators, Catherine Lawrence stands out as the novel’s emotional and historical anchor. A London-based anthropologist and mother, Catherine’s story moves from ordinary domestic life to devastating personal loss, and finally to a purposeful role as the chronicler of the Plague. Her chapters, which span from before the outbreak to years after, give readers a close view of how the pandemic reshapes one woman’s identity, relationships, and sense of duty. Catherine’s arc is not only about survival but about the need to remember—both her own family and the wider human catastrophe. Her professional training as a societal anthropologist, her personal grief, and her eventual decision to compile the stories of survivors make her the novel’s conscience and its memory keeper. This analysis traces Catherine’s character through her actions, decisions, and relationships, and examines how she embodies the novel’s central themes of grief, institutional failure, and the struggle to find meaning in a shattered world. (All plot details are drawn from the supplied chapter outline and EPUB evidence; interpretive statements are clearly marked as such.)

Plot Role

Catherine is one of the novel’s primary point-of-view characters, appearing in chapters that bookend the narrative. Her first chapter (Chapter 1) is set five days before the Plague becomes public, showing her ordinary life as a mother and wife. Her final chapter (Chapter 66) takes place on Day 1,745 (March 1, 2031), where she attends a book launch and later meets Amanda Maclean, reflecting on her completed project, Stories of the Great Male Plague. In between, Catherine’s chapters track the Plague’s impact on her family and her gradual transformation from a private individual into a public recorder of history.

Her plot role is twofold: she is a victim of the Plague—losing her husband Anthony and her three-year-old son Theodore—and she is also an observer and documentarian. Her anthropological training, which she initially dismisses as irrelevant during the crisis, becomes her lifeline. After Genevieve urges her to “record what’s happening,” Catherine begins organizing her journals and later returns to London to research and collect stories. By the end of the novel, she has compiled a major report, Stories of the Great Male Plague, which she introduces in a foreword dated September 9, 2032. This dual role—sufferer and scribe—makes Catherine the novel’s bridge between personal grief and collective memory.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Catherine’s motivations evolve over the course of the novel, but several core traits remain consistent: protectiveness, anxiety, resilience, and a deep need for connection and remembrance.

Protectiveness: From the outset, Catherine is fiercely protective of her son. In Chapter 1, she rushes to collect Theodore from nursery, incurring late fees, and later negotiates with him over vegetables. When the Plague begins, she stops taking Theodore to nursery weeks before official guidance, and she and Anthony isolate at home. After Anthony develops a fever, Catherine enforces their agreed-upon separation to protect Theodore, even though it means not being with her husband as he dies. This protectiveness extends to her decision to bury Theodore illegally in the garden rather than let officials take his body for cremation.

Anxiety and fear: Catherine’s anxiety is palpable in her early Plague chapters. She weeps when the male newsreader is replaced by a woman, fearing the worst. She avoids discussing the crisis with friends, and she feels nauseous jealousy toward Phoebe, who has two daughters and thus faces less risk to her children. Her anxiety is also evident in her obsessive journaling and photographing of Anthony and Theodore, as she tries to preserve memories against an uncertain future.

Resilience and purpose: After losing her entire immediate family, Catherine contemplates suicide but refrains because she fears hell and the possibility of never seeing her family again. Instead, she channels her grief into work. She returns to UCL, accepts a doubled teaching load, and proposes a project to document the Plague’s cultural impact. Her resilience is not immediate; it is a slow, painful process. By the time she writes the foreword to her book, she has given birth to a daughter, Maeve, and has found a new sense of hope.

Need for remembrance: Catherine’s driving motivation, especially after Theodore’s death, is to ensure that her family is not forgotten. In Chapter 58, she reflects, “I need people to know I was here, that I had a beautiful son called Theodore.” This need extends to the wider world: she wants to record the Plague so that future generations understand what was lost. Her foreword explicitly states that she is biased—she lost her husband and son—and that she includes her own story rather than pretending to be an impartial observer.

Chronological Arc

Catherine’s arc can be divided into four phases: pre-Plague domesticity, the Plague’s onset and personal loss, the aftermath and decision to document, and eventual renewal.

Phase 1: Pre-Plague (Chapter 1)

Catherine is a mother to three-year-old Theodore and wife to Anthony, a computer scientist. She is in her early thirties and struggling with secondary infertility. She and Anthony have been trying for a second child for about two years; she previously tried Clomid without success. Anthony argues for IVF, but Catherine resists, hoping for a natural conception. They agree to wait one more month. This chapter establishes Catherine’s deep investment in family and her tendency to avoid difficult decisions.

Phase 2: The Plague’s onset and personal loss (Chapters 3, 7, 12, 14, 20, 22, 26)

As the Plague spreads, Catherine’s world narrows. She stops taking Theodore to nursery, and she and Anthony isolate. On Day 62, Anthony develops a fever; they separate to protect Theodore. Anthony dies at home, and Catherine delivers a eulogy via webcam on Day 67. She then flees London with Theodore to her godmother Genevieve’s farmhouse in Devon. On Day 69, a man breaks in; Catherine lies that they are infected, and he flees. That night, Theodore develops a fever and dies within twenty-four hours. Catherine buries him in the garden, committing her first crime. She then spirals into grief, considering suicide but stopping herself.

Phase 3: Decision to document (Chapters 26, 37, 45, 49)

After Genevieve urges her to use her training, Catherine begins organizing her journals. She returns to London, where her boss Margaret approves her project to document the Plague’s spread and cultural impact. She meets Amanda Maclean on the Isle of Bute to interview Heather, the widow of the first Plague victim. She also learns of the vaccine’s discovery and feels fury that it came too late for her family. Throughout this phase, Catherine struggles with her grief but begins to find purpose.

Phase 4: Renewal and legacy (Chapters 54, 56, 63, 66)

Catherine applies for fertility treatment using donor sperm, and eventually gives birth to a daughter, Maeve, in January 2032. She reconnects with her friend Phoebe, though the encounter is painful. She attends Toby Williams’s book launch and meets Amanda for dinner. Her foreword to Stories of the Great Male Plague is dated September 9, 2032, and she dedicates it to Anthony, Theodore, and Maeve. This phase shows Catherine moving from survival to living, though she never fully recovers from her losses.

Relationships

Catherine’s relationships are central to her character and to the novel’s emotional weight.

Anthony Lawrence: Catherine’s husband is her anchor. Their relationship is portrayed as loving and supportive. In Chapter 1, Anthony gently pushes for IVF but respects her wish to wait. During the Plague, they cling to each other. Anthony’s death is the first major blow. Catherine later describes him as “funny and frank,” “clever and loyal,” and says, “He was perfect. He was mine.” Her grief for Anthony is compounded by guilt: she could not hold his hand as he died because she was protecting Theodore. In Chapter 54, she wishes she could go back and hold his hand.

Theodore: Catherine’s son is her “last piece of Anthony.” She is fiercely protective of him, but her protectiveness leads to isolation. After Theodore’s death, Catherine is consumed by guilt, wondering if she missed symptoms. She buries him with a blanket and a letter. Her grief for Theodore is the most visceral; she says, “I am a mother with no child.”

Phoebe: Catherine’s oldest friend, Phoebe has two daughters and an immune husband. Catherine feels jealous of Phoebe’s safety, and their friendship strains. Phoebe fails to tell Catherine about her pregnancy, and Catherine erupts in anger. They eventually reconcile, but the relationship is permanently altered.

Libby: A close friend who lives in Madrid, Libby provides quiet support. After a painful art gallery visit, Libby follows Catherine on the train and tells her, “You’re not alone. I love you.” Libby is a steady presence in Catherine’s grief.

Genevieve: Catherine’s godmother, who offers her farmhouse and later urges her to document the Plague. Genevieve’s practical advice—“You need a project”—sets Catherine on her path.

Amanda Maclean: Catherine meets Amanda late in the novel. Their conversation in Chapter 66 is a moment of shared understanding. Amanda tells Catherine that “the world doesn’t have to remember you for you to matter,” which resonates with Catherine’s fear of being forgotten.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Catherine makes several pivotal decisions that shape her arc.

1. Waiting on IVF (Chapter 1): Catherine decides to wait one more month for natural conception. This decision is overtaken by the Plague, and she never has a second child with Anthony. The consequence is that she loses her only chance to have another child with him.

2. Separating from Anthony when he develops a fever (Chapter 12): Catherine and Anthony had agreed to separate to protect Theodore. When Anthony gets a fever, Catherine enforces this, even though she is devastated. The consequence is that Anthony dies alone, and Catherine later regrets not holding his hand.

3. Burying Theodore illegally (Chapter 26): Catherine buries Theodore in the garden to avoid his body being taken for cremation. This is her “first-ever crime.” The consequence is that she has a place to mourn, but she also lives with the fear of discovery.

4. Returning to work and proposing the documentation project (Chapter 37): Catherine returns to UCL and proposes a project to record the Plague’s impact. This decision gives her purpose and leads to her book.

5. Applying for fertility treatment (Chapter 54): After years of grief, Catherine applies for donor-sperm fertility treatment. This decision leads to the birth of her daughter Maeve, which brings her hope and a new family.

6. Including her own story in her report (Foreword): Catherine decides to include her own losses rather than pretend to be an impartial observer. This decision makes her work more honest and personal.

Themes and Symbol Connections

Catherine’s story connects to several of the novel’s central themes.

Grief, Loss, and Remembrance: Catherine is the novel’s primary vehicle for exploring grief. Her losses—Anthony, Theodore, and her parents—drive her need to remember. Her project is an act of remembrance, and her foreword explicitly addresses the question of who gets to record history. She argues that women, as the majority of survivors, must tell the story.

Gender-Specific Pandemic and Societal Transformation: Catherine’s experience illustrates how the Plague transforms gender roles and family structures. She becomes a single mother, then a childless mother, and finally a mother again through donor sperm. Her observation that only 10% of men are immune highlights the demographic crisis.

Institutional Failure and Bureaucratic Inertia: Catherine notes that no official body acknowledges the unusual nature of the virus early on. She is frustrated by the lack of scientific explanation. Her decision to document the Plague is partly a response to institutional failure—someone must record what is happening.

Reproductive Ethics and Population Collapse: Catherine’s fertility struggles and later use of donor sperm raise questions about reproduction in a world with few men. Her desire for a girl is both personal and practical, as girls are safer.

Scientific Discovery, Collaboration, and Commercialization: Catherine is not a scientist, but her work intersects with the scientific race for a vaccine. She is furious when the vaccine arrives too late for her family, and she later discusses the commercialization of the vaccine with Amanda.

Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Catherine decide to bury Theodore illegally?

Catherine buries Theodore in the garden because she cannot bear for his body to be taken and cremated, as Anthony’s was. She wants a place to remember him, and she fears that if officials take him, she will have nothing. She says, “I couldn’t stand for them to take him away and burn him.”

2. How does Catherine’s relationship with Phoebe change over the course of the novel?

Initially, Catherine feels jealous of Phoebe because Phoebe has two daughters and an immune husband. Their friendship strains when Phoebe fails to tell Catherine about her pregnancy. Catherine confronts Phoebe angrily, but they later reconcile. The relationship is never the same, as Catherine’s grief makes it difficult for her to be around Phoebe’s intact family.

3. What role does Genevieve play in Catherine’s decision to document the Plague?

Genevieve, Catherine’s godmother, offers her farmhouse as a refuge and later calls to urge Catherine to use her anthropological training. She tells Catherine, “Someone’s got to be recording what’s happening. That’s your job, isn’t it?” This conversation prompts Catherine to begin organizing her journals and eventually to return to London to research and write.

4. How does Catherine’s view of her own grief change by the end of the novel?

In her foreword, Catherine writes that she initially believed optimism was a privilege she could not afford, but she later learns that “we did the best we could with what we knew at the time.” She accepts that recovery is not about regaining what was lost but finding a new way to exist. She also finds hope through her daughter Maeve.

5. What does Catherine mean when she says she is “biased” as an anthropologist?

Catherine acknowledges that she lost her husband and son to the Plague, so she cannot study it with emotional neutrality. She chooses to include her own story in her report rather than pretend to be an invisible observer. She argues that all anthropologists are changed by the Plague, and that honesty about bias is necessary for truthful recording.

Conclusion

Catherine Lawrence is the emotional heart of The End of Men. Her journey from a worried mother to a grieving widow and childless mother, and finally to a purposeful documentarian, mirrors the novel’s broader arc from catastrophe to fragile hope. Through her, Sweeney-Baird explores how individuals cope with unimaginable loss and how the act of remembering can become a form of survival. Catherine’s decision to record the Plague ensures that her family—and the millions of others lost—will not be forgotten. Her story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the importance of bearing witness.

For further exploration, see the book overview, [g